Heritage Board recommends ending protection for 48 Jõgeva manor monuments

Estonia’s Heritage Board has recommended ending state protection for 48 of 133 manor-related built heritage monuments in Jõgeva County, ERR reported. It proposes continuing protection for the other 85, but the recommendations are not final.

The board will present its findings to the county community next week before deciding which buildings should be removed from the state heritage list. The review also exposed disagreements among evaluators.

One contested case is Võisiku Manor. The board says the estate has historical significance and is the setting for the novel “The Czar’s Madman,” but its main building was extensively altered in the 20th century and received a large extension. The current recommendation is to end state protection for the buildings in the manor complex.

Heritage Board building heritage department head Anita Staub said some properties were added to the list during Soviet-era inventories without proposals to protect them. She also said many manor buildings were already in poor condition when they were listed.

The board has been reviewing Estonia’s heritage list since 2023. Manor heritage assessments have been carried out in five counties: Jõgeva, Pärnu, Lääne, Hiiu and Saare. Jõgeva is the first to have a completed analysis. Assessing the five counties took 10 months, Staub said, and the board plans to review all listed manor buildings by the end of 2028.

Estonia has nearly 5,000 built heritage monuments, and manor heritage accounts for more than half of them.